Blogging Power

A few weeks ago we started live blogging!

Last year's class also blogged, but it seemed to be mostly as an extension of literacy (what does line two, stanza two mean to you, what is the theme of this poem and why, etc.). The login went quickly since all the students had to do was go to this blog and begin. The only problem was that I was always mindful (maybe overly mindful) as the moderator for student safety since we were using a site that was more publicly accessible. As a result, many responses were not posted due to an overly cautious teacher, not to irrelevant/repetitive replies.

This year we have started earlier since there have been a few student who were trying to use the wiki as a blogging tool (my apologies to the space members who received wikimail messages that said (I'm on everyone. Is anyone there?"). We set our expectations (be respectful, be safe, be as accurate as possible with conventions, and be patient while Mr. R. reads all of the messages). We talked about what a moderator is and also how to respond to polling questions that I would post.

Result: Complete student engagement and some student frustration at not always having each response posted immediately.

I will share this tool with Science Council and anyone else who will listen!